At 1640 hours, the Nadesico-C was ready for launch. Makibi Haley let out a small sigh of relief as a stream of positive reports flowed in from Omoikane concerning the ship's status. So far the warm-up had been relatively simple from the get-go, and for that Haley-kun was grateful. Prepping the ship up for launch wasn't all that bad, he thought smugly to himself. Looks like the Kanchou was right after all; heck, maybe I can even get command of a ship in a few years just like her! His eyes lit up at the thought, and he spent the next five minutes reveling in fantasy glory, leading his own mobile battleship to triumphant victory against all odds. I can see it already, he thought excitedly, Captain Makibi Haley, savior of Earth, natural leader and warrior!
"Haley-kun, why are you drooling out of the side of your mouth?" a petite female voice asked out of thin air. Haley gave out a little yelp and whirled around, beet-red, seeing Captain Hoshino Ruri behind him.
"Um…nothing…I was just…uh…checking up on the computer…yeah, that's what it was," he stammered out as Ruri made her way to her captain's chair, completely unfazed. "Ano…Kanchou, the Nadesico-C is ready for launch," Haley finished quietly, slightly embarrassed. Geez, was I really drooling? But the Kanchou isn't the type to make jokes. I can't believe I was that much into that little dream! Lieutenant Haley, you are a baka!
Ruri seemed to have a ghost of a bemused expression as she watched Haley berate himself with his hands. Quietly, she slipped out a small paperback book, a notepad and pencil, and began reading. Five minutes into her book, Omoikane flashed a message on a vid-screen, informing her that a priority traffic message was coming through. Ruri nodded once, and the vid-screen disappeared, replaced instead with a live video feed directly from the Grand Admiral's office.
"Ah, Ruri-san, there you are!" Admiral Misumaru's
voice boomed across the Nadesico's bridge. "How are preparations going?"
"Provisions are proceeding at
a satisfactory pace, but the crew of the Nadesico are not scheduled to arrive
for another twenty minutes, Admiral," Ruri replied in her normal monotone. "Is
there something you wish to discuss?"
"Ah yes," Misumaru coughed once to clear his throat. "There has been a slight change in your mission parameters."
"Is there?" Ruri asked, noting that Haley had straightened up a little bit, his expression both nervous and serious as he listened in on the conversation.
"It appears that the enemy has advanced far more rapidly than we thought. Already, lead elements of their fleet have come into contact with Mars. The UE Council has decided it would be best to dispatch the Nadesico and her escort squadron to Mars first to bolster the defenses," Misumaru said, looking thoroughly displeased.
"That decision is completely illogical," Ruri protested quietly. "How can the UE Council expect us to defend Mars adequately when we have almost no knowledge of the enemy forces?"
"That's what I told them!" the Admiral protested. "But those old fools have never listened to us, and never will. Nevertheless, your new orders are to travel to Mars and help in the defense for at least the first assault; then, I'm sure we can get started on that recon mission." Misumaru pulled out a small sheet of paper and donned a pair of reading spectacles. "As a result, we've decided to add two more ships to your command; a high-speed cruiser and another battleship. In fact, you might know these two," he added, with a small smile.
Ruri tilted her head and raised her eyebrows.
"The Amaryllis, commanded by Captain Jun Aoi, and the Crusader, commanded by Captain Ararigi." The Admiral chuckled. "It seems you have an old comrade and a fan of yours to help you out."
Ruri shook her head. She didn't mind having Jun around; in fact, she was a bit glad he was coming, but Ararigi scared her slightly. He seemed a little too obsessed with her when she met him during the Martian insurrection. That event was somewhat embarrassing, she reflected. "Very well then, Admiral, thank you for informing me."
It was then that she noticed that Admiral Misumaru's face had grown somewhat red, as if he was blushing. How odd, she thought. Is he ill? She was about to ask when she recalled similar conversations between the Admiral and his daughter…and how the Admiral would always comment on Yurika-san's…growth.
"Is something the matter, Admiral?" she asked tentatively.
Her question seemed to jolt him out of his reverie. "Oh, no, nothing, of course!" he said hastily. "However," and his face turned red again, "I must admit, you've grown quite a bit, Ruri-san. You're quite the beautiful lady."
The Nadesico's captain raised an eyebrow while slightly blushing, both embarrassed and annoyed, at the same time. I knew it. "Thank you, Admiral. If that will be all, then I should be getting back to the Nadesico's launch preparations."
"Oh, but of course," Misumaru managed to say before she cut off the video feed. "Baka," she murmured to herself.
"Ano…Kanchou," Haley began shyly. "Ano…what was that all about? Why was he blushing like that?"
Ruri turned around to look at him, a faint smile on her face. "Grand Admiral Misumaru is…an interesting person." She took a quick look at the status boards. "I see everything is ready for launch. Good work, Haley-kun."
"Oh…it was nothing, really," Haley laughed, a little embarrassed. "You were right after all; prepping Omoikane and the ship really wasn't that hard! I was thinking…maybe in a few years or so, I could get command of my own ship?" he asked hopefully.
"Perhaps," Ruri said absent-mindedly, not noticing the way Haley's face lit up when she confirmed his hopes. She was too busy examining the status boards to pay much attention. "I see Lieutenant Saburouta and the Aestivalis pilots aren't here yet."
"Oh yeah, he sent off a message a while ago, while you were still in your room," Haley said. "I think he said he might be a little late in arriving, and that we should just launch; he'd join us up later. Apparently, the pilots we're getting are like "horses from hell," according to him. Though, that's an awfully deep phrase coming from someone like Saburouta-san," Haley mused out-loud.
This time, Ruri's faint smile turned into a smirk for a split second before fading away.
"I see…"
At precisely 1715 hours, the Nadesico's crew had arrived, and the ship was ready for launch. The launch sequence itself would take just under half an hour, so Ruri decided to go ahead and begin a little early. The entire bridge crew was already assembled on deck.
"Lieutenant Haley, warm up the phase transition engine," the Captain quietly commanded.
"Hai!"
"All personnel, please complete the final checklists before launch sequence." A chorus of affirmatives greeted her command. Ten minutes later, the engines were fully warmed up. At the same time, the checklists were starting to finish.
"All living quarters, prepped and braced for launch!"
"Energy discharge level is good to go."
"Interior precaution level switched to pattern B!"
Haley-kun checked his monitors. "Phase engine output is nominal," he reported. "Everything else is okay!"
Ruri nodded. "Launch." Deep within the bowels of the Nadesico, six powerful phase-transition engines ignited, greedily sucking in energy. Slowly, the Nadesico eased out of its docking space in Tranquility Base, picking up momentum as the engines accelerated the ship at an increasing speed. The hangar bay doors that led from open space into the lunar compound slowly opened, revealing a black sky glittering with countless diamonds of white. Fifteen minutes later, the Nadesico cleared the base and began to lazily orbit, waiting for the launch of its four escort ships.
As soon as the Nadesico broke away from the compound, a vid-screen flashed in front of Ruri, revealing a stocky man with tanned skin, tousled hair, and crooked glasses. He held a wrench in one hand, and was threateningly whacking it into his other hand; dressed in the normal blue uniform of the maintenance crews, his bomber jacket lent him an appearance that remind Ruri of someone she knew.
"Seiya-san?" Ruri asked, surprised.
The man barked a harsh laugh. "How can you get me confused with Seiya?" he asked, giggling like a maniac. "He and I both know that I am the better looking of the two!"
Ruri gazed at him, puzzled. "If you're not Seiya-san, who are you?"
The stranger pulled himself up straighter, and beamed proudly. "Why, I'm Uribatake Shinta, Seiya's twin!" He pushed his face close next to the vid-screen, and grinned crazily. "Maintenance guru and samurai otaku; at your service!"
The bridge was quiet as everyone stared at the vid-screen; Shinta's eccentricity had taken them all by surprise. This evidently pleased Uribatake very much, as he twirled around the screen in a sickeningly humorous dance. "Aha! I see my good looks and powerful presence have already struck awe and fear into the hearts of my fellow crewmembers!" he shouted joyfully.
Ruri blinked several times before shaking her head. Shinta and Seiya-san were exactly alike. "Ano, what is it that you want, Shinta-san?"
Shinta, who was about 15 feet away from the vid-screen at that time, suddenly zeroed in to the point that his cheek was against the screen in less than 4 nanoseconds, according to Ruri's calculations. His face had adopted an expression of the gravest concern she had ever seen. "Well, Kanchou, it seems we have a slight problem over here…"
"And what might that be, Seiya—Shinta-san?"
At this, Shinta exploded into a fury. "WHERE THE HELL ARE MY AESTIVALIS'? THE ONLY REASON WHY I SIGNED THE MILITARY CONTRACT WAS TO PERSONALLY MODIFY AND BEEF UP MY OWN MECHAS! DAMN IT ALL! DAMN IT, DAMN IT, DAMN IT! AND LOOK AT ALL THESE BEAUTIFUL BABIES I HAD FOR THEM….ALL FOR NOTHING! DAMN IT ALL!" he wailed, as the vid-screen panned to reveal pile after pile of personalized Aesti weapons that must've took Shinta years to make. Just like Seiya-san after all, Ruri thought, as she closed the vid-screen, cutting off Uribatake mid-wail.
With relative silence reigning over the bridge once again, Ruri took a closer look at the bridge crew of the Nadesico. She'd already met one crazy baka on this ship; were there any others? The computer operator, who maintained and regulated Omoikane, was Lieutenant Makibi Haley. She already knew him. The tactical actions officer, and also the executive officer, or XO, of the ship was Lieutenant Takasugi Saburouta. She knew who he was also.
She transferred her gaze to the left and down, where the helmspilot sat. She queued up a vid-screen of the crewmember. The helmswoman, Yoshizumi Kotone, was short, and according to the profile, about 24 years of age. She had big, round eyes and an innocent smile that seemed to bubble with cheerfulness and energy. Long curls of dyed dark-blue hair cascaded down her head, around her ears, and down to the small of her back, reminding Ruri a little of Yurika. She shook her head sadly, and transferred her gaze, and the vid-screen, to another crewmember.
The communications officer was a man this time instead of a woman: Kawabata Akira was his name. Instead of the sweet voice of Megumi Reinard, ships hailing the Nadesico would instead hear the glib smooth-talking, gravy-like voice of Akira. According to his profile, Ruri saw, he was about 27 years of age, and had a slight problem with gambling. No, she corrected herself upon seeing his criminal record, he had a major problem with gambling and the kinds of people it attracted. Studying his picture, she saw that his face was tanned to the point it seemed almost leathery, and a long torturous scar etched its way across his left cheek. It reminded Ruri of a character in that baka-baka TV show, Gekigangar…who was it? Ah yes, it was Tetsuo Ryuuzaki…the pilot that replaced Joe after he died. She started, a bit surprised. How did I remember that? Ah yes…it was his favorite TV show. Her eyes darkened for the slightest bit, before she resumed her usual composure.
By now, it was 1754 hours; it would be at least another 6 minutes before the rest of the escort squadron would launch. Ruri sighed, and leaned back in her chair.
Six minutes later, Omoikane displayed a large screen in the Nadesico's bridge, tracking the position of the four escort ships as they departed from the lunar surface. A few seconds later, a lone screen popped up in front of Ruri, revealing the face of Captain Aoi Jun. Upon seeing her, the young man's face burst into a wide grin.
"Ruri!" he exclaimed warmly. "It's so nice to see you after—" Another vid-screen suddenly popped up in front of Jun, cutting him off.
"Ah, Captain Hoshino Ruri, it's a pleasure and honor to serve you again," Ararigi intoned, as his hungry eyes drank in every detail of the petite fairy's body. "I see you are well and as beautiful as always; that is most gratifying for me and my crew." Ararigi made a small bow with his hand as he spoke.
"Ah…arigato, Ararigi-san," Ruri replied, somewhat uneasily. "You look well yourself."
Ararigi beamed back. "I am always well when it comes to serving such a magical young lady…" but before he could continue with his fawning remarks, Ruri queued up Jun's screen again.
"What was that all about?" Jun demanded. "Why does everyone always cut me off like that?"
"That question I cannot answer," Ruri said simply. "However, it has been a while, Captain Aoi Jun."
Jun grinned again. "Yes, it has. I see you've grown up a bit, Ruri. How are things going?"
Before Ruri could respond, Jun's screen was again shut out by another two vid-screens displaying two similarly dressed UE Spacey captains. One was clearly Japanese with a crew cut and sharp shrewd eyes, while the other one seemed more Anglican, with the same crew cut, brown hair and equally sharp shrewd blue eyes. Their similarity and blandness was amazing.
"Greetings, Captain Hoshino Ruri of the NS-966-C Nadesico, assigned to the UE Spacey 4th Fleet," both said simultaneously in an equally monotonous tone. "We are Captains Rutherford and Watanabe of the Triton and the Cricket. We will provide escort for your ship, along with Captains Jun and Ararigi."
"Ah…hai…" Ruri responded, while an ignored Jun wailed miserably behind the vid-screens. "It is a pleasure to meet you…"
"Likewise," both replied at the same time yet again, "we shall be departing to Mars in approximately one hour. Until that time, farewell." Both screens disappeared simultaneously.
Haley-kun whistled in amazement. "Sugoi, were those two guys robots, Kanchou? They acted the same, talked the same, looked the same…"
"Yes, you are correct in that observation," Ruri murmured quietly, queuing up Jun's screen for the third time. This time, the man looked a little angry.
"Honestly!" he huffed. "Don't I get any respect around here? These insolent captains, just cutting me off like that! Who else is going to interrupt me now? Our new mysterious enemy, maybe?" he demanded.
"Jun-san, I'm sure they didn't mean to purposefully—" Alarm klaxons rang out around the bridge, as Omoikane cut Jun's conversation off yet again, bringing a larger screen to bear. Immediately, Haley-kun's fingers raced across his keyboard, analyzing and interpreting the data the Nadesico's computer was processing.
"Multiple boson reactions, directly to starboard," he yelled. "Estimated distance…three hundred kilometers. I count…twenty-five manifestations."
Ruri nodded once and turned back to Jun's screen. "I'm sorry, Jun-san, but we're going to have to continue this conversation later." With that, her vid-screen disappeared from Jun's view. The young captain sighed and hung his head. "It's always got to happen to me," he groaned.
Twenty-five silver ships materialized into lunar orbit. But, these ships didn't really seem like space-faring vessels; their design was smooth and almost organic, with the majority of the surface made up of smooth hemispheres and graceful curves; this was in direct contrast with the boxy man-built cruisers of UE Spacey. As the Nadesico turned hard to starboard to meet them, the small fleet of silver ships began to move as one, slowly accelerating through space. Swarms of small silver specks cascaded out of spherical pods hanging underneath the seed-like cruisers; hordes of silver mechas armed with missile pods. About five minutes away, the four escort ships also picked up speed in a desperate attempt to head them off before they could severely damage the isolated Nadesico.
All this Ruri observed quietly. Swiveling to Haley-kun, she ordered, "Power up the gravity blast cannon and raise the distortion field."
"Hai!" Once more, Haley-kun's fingers swept across the keyboard. A distinct humming noise was heard in the bridge as the Nadesico's powerful gravity blast cannon was charged up in about 10 seconds. "Gravity blast cannon, ready to fire!"
Ruri selected some buttons on her console, and settled back as a series of advanced hydraulics lifted her chair up and out of the console and into the air. When her chair had reached about twelve feet away from the console, it stopped and a sphere of data screens encircled her. Screens flashed "Ruri Mode" signs all across the ship. Haley-kun likewise did the same thing.
Nadesico's captain selected a few screens that displayed the formation of the enemy fleet, and sensor information that measured the level of their distortion fields. Working quickly and skillfully, Ruri sketched out a path for the gravity blast to pass through, to maximize the amount of damage. This done, she sent the information to Haley with a flick of her hand. When the lieutenant gave a thumbs-up in affirmation, Ruri nodded her head, and checked over her data once more.
"Gravity blast cannon, hasha," she quietly intoned.
The entire ship shuddered as a single bolt of white-hot energy interlaced with black streaks of lightning arced through space towards the enemy fleet. All twenty-five ships were engulfed in the resulting explosion, but twenty-three made it out virtually unscathed. Haley groaned in disappointment.
"I thought that blast would've taken out a few more; we have the most powerful cannon in the fleet," he complained.
"True, but the blast did severely weaken their distortion fields," Ruri replied, gazing at the vid-screens. Selecting another screen from the sphere, she opened up a communications screen with Jun. "Captain," she said, "if I am correct, your ship is armed specifically to deal with small mecha like the ones this enemy is deploying?" Jun's image nodded.
"You want me to take them out? We're nearly in range for our phase transition batteries," he said.
"Yes, that would be appreciated; I do not wish to waste gravity blasts against the enemy fighter craft. How long until the Amaryllis reaches firing range?"
Jun looked off-screen quickly for a second, before turning back. "We're pushing our engines to the max right now, Ruri. We should be there in…oh, three minutes."
Ruri nodded. "Very well then," she said, before signing off. She swiveled to the communications officer. "Akira-san, if you could open a comm channel with the Crusader?"
The leathery man cracked a quick grin and donned his headset. "Yo, Crusader," he drawled into the microphone. "This is the Nadesico, the most bad-ass ship on this side of the moon. You over there or what? Our illustrious Captain wants a word with you." A few seconds later, he nodded and gave a thumbs up to Ruri.
A lone vid-screen popped up, and Ararigi bowed once more. "Is there something our fairy would like us to do?" he asked magnanimously, while giving an evil eye to Akira. The impetuous comm officer stuck up his middle finger, and Ararigi scowled.
"Yes, I'm sending you a data file right now," Ruri said while encrypting a message and sending it via hyperlink. Ararigi looked down away from the screen, reading the message, and smiled once. "A brilliant plan, my fairy. I'll send this to the escort frigates at once. Ararigi, out." The vid-screen vanished.
"Kanchou?" Haley-kun asked, waiting for directions.
"Charge the gravity blast cannon again; wide-spread pattern this time," Ruri ordered. "Catch as many enemy ship as possible in the blast, but configure the beam so it weakens the distortion field closest to the escort ships."
Haley-kun nodded once, immediately
seeing the Kanchou's course of attack.
The cannon's power meter rose rapidly, and the gravity blast was ready
in another ten seconds flat. "Gravity blast cannon, ready to fire!"
"Hasha!" Another beam, this
one significantly wider, shot out from the Nadesico's brow, and caught the
enemy fleet once more. Vid-screens from
Omoikane gauged the strength of the distortion fields once more, and Ruri saw
with some satisfaction that their effectiveness had gone down to barely above
30%. Ararigi's attack should be
coming at any time, she thought.
And indeed, right on schedule, another more concentrated gravity blast beam raced through the void from the Crusader, right into the middle of the enemy formation. Smaller beams arced around it; battery fire from the escort frigates' more conventional laser weapons. Five of the enemy vessels immediately exploded upon impact, lighting up space with brilliant flashes of light. Two more broke in half, and collided with a third ship, adding more spheres of fire to the already blinding display. The enemy dispersed in confusion.
Haley-kun gave a small cheer. Fifteen seconds later, another gravity blast from both the Nadesico and the Crusader slammed into the enemy fleet; another ten ships vanished inside spectacular explosions. It was a little early for celebrating, though; Omoikane flashed a red alert warning as the swarm of silver mecha, having evaded the brunt of the gravity blasts, closed in on the Nadesico.
Ruri wasn't overtly concerned though; by now the Amaryllis was in range, and it was specifically equipped with mini-gravitron blast cannons like those on Nergal's secret Black Sarena that Tenkawa had used in the Martian insurrection. A hail of light-blue beams spewed forth from the high-speed cruiser, and silver mecha started exploding in tiny puffs of flame. But, they kept on driving in, hard and fast, towards the battleship.
"Kanchou," Haley-kun said, a little worried. "Our distortion field can stand up easily against energy weapons, but it provides little protection against the missile salvoes that these things launch. Maybe we should pull back a little?"
Before Ruri could respond, the space ahead of them burst into a long ribbon of flame as droves of silver mecha were suddenly shot down. Haley-kun sputtered in surprise, and then Lieutenant Saburouta's visage graced the vid-screen onboard the bridge.
"Hey," he shouted heartily, "I think it's time for my flashy entrance, don't you think? I brought the cavalry with me!" He laughed heartily.
"Saburouta-san," Haley-kun muttered under his breath. "He can be downright annoying sometimes." Overhearing this, Saburouta's vid-screen zoomed down into Haley's console, taking him by surprise.
"Hmmmm, what's this I hear, Haley?" he drawled. "At least I get the job done, and with such an artistic flair! It's something a child like you wouldn't be able to accomplish," he teased, emphasizing the word "child" before signing off.
"SABUROUTA-SAN!" Haley-kun screamed at the empty air.
As Saburouta-san and his five mysterious Aestivalis pilots wove an intricate dance of destruction around the silver mecha, accompanied by deadly needles of energy from the Amaryllis, the Nadesico and Crusader prepped one last gravity blast. The combined discharge completely sundered the rest of the disorganized enemy fleet, and when the last enemy capital ship exploded, the silver mecha suddenly stopped moving and began drifting through space. The once-deadly machines were now simply space junk.
"Interesting," Saburouta observed as he made his way back to the Nadesico. "I guess that means these mechas are computer controlled from the capital ships?"
"Yes, that seems to be the case," Ruri replied. "An interesting observation, and one we should both report and keep in mind for the next battle."
"But of course, Kanchou," the Jovian grinned.
"So, Lieutenant Saburouta, what pilots have you brought to the Nadesico today?"
At this, the Jovian's face broke into a dashing grin. "They're horsies from hell that go 'neigh,' Kanchou, and I think you know them well!"
"I see." Ruri smiled.
Author's Notes: Wow, this was a LONG chapter! But hey, a lot of cool stuff happened, right? I'm trying to make a rough parallel between the first Nadesico and this Nadesico's voyage. While they won't be identical, I think it'll be vaguely familiar. I included some new Japanese vocabulary:
Sugoi: Wow, or awesome
Ano: Um, well, or like
Kawaii: Cute; this one hasn't showed up yet, but I have a feeling it will.
Well, I think this chapter went by really well; outlining before I wrote helped with the organization a lot, so I think I'll keep on doing that. The other reviews I got were very encouraging. And yeah, I guess Ruri is 16 after all…hmm….I guess I'll put in a "Happy Birthday Ruri" chapter or something. Ha, that would be a pretty funny chapter!
I'm striving to make the first couple chapters a mix of humor and action, while reserving the more romantic and serious parts for the end; this is set after the PoD, after all, and that was a pretty dark and serious (albeit awesome) movie. Please R&R!